Changes in brain levels of NE and 5-HT are not responsible for attenuation of audiogenic seizures by spinal cordotomy.

Spinal cord transection affords protection from audiogenic seizures (anterior to paralysis) in 21 day-old DBA/2J mice. To test the possibility that altered brain levels of NE or 5-HT are involved in mediating this effect, whole brain levels of these amines were assayed in cordotomized and control DBA/2J mice, aged 21 days. The assay revealed no significant differences between cordotomized and control mice. Therefore, cordotomy protects mice from seizures by mechanisms other than altering brain levels of NE or 5-HT.